Chapter 575: Doubt and Turnaround

"Locke, do you think His Majesty is behind all this? That bastard Earl of California is just being pushed forward as a puppet?" asked Duke Kenmeth. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Now Lorlist, Duke Kenmeth, Duke Philim and Duke Shaheen have all left the city, leaving the imperial capital with their families and family arms, and going to the port of Qilin along the national highway, where they are going to board a ship and go to the island of Hirowas, discuss countermeasures, and escape the summer by the way.

To the surprise of Duke Kenmeth, Lorist would turn his face with His Second Highness so resolutely this time, and it can be said that he did not save any face for His Second Highness. If His Royal Highness declares the Norton family a traitor next, then the Kingdom of Antinac will be plunged into turmoil again. As the three major families in the four alliances of the Northlands, they seem to have no choice but to stand with the Norton family against the entire kingdom.

In fact, you can also stand with His Majesty the King to denounce the rebellion of Lorist and the Norton family. Duke Kenmath said this to the Duke of Shaheen and the Duke of Philim.

We're not stupid. This was the answer of the Duke of Shaheen and the Duke of Philim. Duke Shaheen and Duke Philim have not thought about it, but with their understanding of the temperament of the Second Highness, as long as they were allies of the Norton family, as long as they express their intention to take refuge, they will definitely become the first batch of cannon fodder to attack the Norton family. Compared with the Second Highness, they think that it is safer to stand with Lorlist, even if the family is completely lost, they do not have to worry about being annexed by the Norton family, on the contrary, Lorist can help their family revival.

"Yes," Lorist replied with a gloomy face, "You told me that there was a competition between the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce and the Antillio Chamber of Commerce for the salt market last year, and you defeated the Antario Chamber of Commerce, causing it to lose nearly 100,000 gold fords. Then if you think about it now, 100,000 gold fords, for any kingdom chamber of commerce, is a huge loss of nerves and bones, and it will even collapse in a short period of time. But didn't you notice that the current Antitario Chamber of Commerce is a little aggrieved?

You must know that the Antitario Chamber of Commerce is not one of those old chambers of commerce in the business alliance, it has a deep heritage, and it is just a new chamber of commerce just opened by that person's illegitimate son. And after it was opened, it provoked competition with the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce, intending to monopolize the salt market of the entire kingdom, and it didn't matter if it lost nearly 100,000 gold fords after failure, it was obvious that someone was paying for it behind it. Consider that you were assassinated by a great swordsman one after another after winning the competition at the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce, and it was obvious that this was an act of revenge, as you said, your instinct was that it was the instigation of the Antigol Chamber of Commerce.

Then we can easily conclude who will be the mastermind behind the Antillio Chamber of Commerce. Do you think that a scoundrel bastard who has been in the market since childhood would have such a strategy and courage to plot against a territorial duke like you? Does he even have the confidence to afford the consequences of losing a lot of money in competition? And to send a great swordsman to assassinate and retaliate, does he have the qualifications to instruct the great swordsman? Obviously, only someone standing behind that bastard has this qualification, and we still have to guess who this person is?"

Duke Kenmeth's face turned a little pale, and Lorlist's words made his heart tremble: "But I don't understand, why does Your Majesty want to attack the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce and me, I am just a businessman, and I have not hindered Your Majesty's hegemony, and I do not have the qualifications to pose a threat to Your Majesty?"

"You take yourself too lightly," Lorist laughed, "the war is over, and everyone knows that the next will be a period of peace and rest." Now that the external troubles are gone, then our Majesty will be thinking about the internal worries. Do you think there is anything in the kingdom that worries Your Majesty more than our four alliances? No, if Your Majesty wants to rectify internal affairs, you can't bypass our four families. So what he desperately wants is to break up the alliance of the four of us.

I suspect that Your Majesty has set his sights on your Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce because he knows that your Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce is a link of interest between the four alliances of ours. In particular, the Shaheen family and the Philim family rely on the dividends distributed from the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce every year to restore the vitality of the family territory quickly, and the strength of the family's armed forces also recovers quickly. It was only after the failure of the commercial competition that His Majesty made your idea, and if it weren't for you, then the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce would not be a threat.

I don't have any evidence to prove that His Majesty sent the Great Swordsman to assassinate you, it was just conjecture and suspicion, but my suspicion deepened when I found out that the bastard son was wantonly bullying the nobles of the kingdom who came to participate in the grand ceremony in the imperial capital, and his newly opened Chamber of Commerce was able to pull out the escort led by the Golden Swordsman. Without His Majesty's support behind him, how could this Antillio Chamber of Commerce have such a deep escort force, you must know that your Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce is only based on silver guards......

In particular, when I slaughtered the guards of the Chamber of Commerce and destroyed the Antitario Firm, do you remember the scene when His Majesty was angry at me? Like a child who has destroyed his favorite toy, he was so hysterical that he even asked me to give him an explanation regardless of the rights and wrongs of the matter, which made me sure that he was behind the ghost. Now, what else is there to say, why should I care about his face, of course, he turned his face and left. ”

Duke Philim, who had been listening, nodded: "Locke, your analysis is very reasonable. But what do you think Your Majesty will do next, will he declare us rebellious?"

Count Shaheen next to him said: "I don't care if I am rebellious or not, anyway, even if the four of us face the strength of the entire kingdom, we can guarantee victory." I believe that except for the Fisabrun family, the nobles of other territories are not so stupid, and will be willing to work hard for Your Majesty and us. Last time, I listened to His Majesty's lobbying and the armed forces of the Business Alliance fought bloody battles for three years, and most of the Kingdom Lords have not recovered so far, and most of His Majesty's promises at that time have not been fulfilled until now, who will listen to his orders?

What worries me now is whether Your Majesty will tear your face and send the Royal Guards to pursue us regardless of the consequences. For him, maybe it's a good idea to threaten us with our family in his hands now, if he lets us return to the family territory, even if he declares the four of us rebels, he knows that with his kingdom armed Royal Guards and the White Lion Legion, he will not be able to defeat our four family forces. Why don't we let the Royal Guards tie up our family and bargain with us now......"

Duke Shaheen's words made everyone silent, now the combined family forces of the four families are less than 5,000 people, and the establishment of the Royal Guards Regiment is 45,000 people, almost ten times the strength of the force. If it is true as Duke Shaheen said, while announcing the rebellion of the four families as the kingdom, His Royal Highness dispatched the Royal Guard Legion to besiege him, even if Lorist is a sword saint, he can't stop the attack of a legion, especially now that the families of the four families are together, this is indeed everyone's weakness.

Lorist replied with a deep groan: "If he were to do this, he would be fighting us to the death, and he would almost gamble on the future and fate of the Clison royal family." I believe that he will not lose his mind, he should understand that the consequence of doing so is to drive the rest of the kingdom nobles to our side, no one will be willing to obey the orders of such a faithless king, let alone if he wants to do so, can he really do it?

We have just left the imperial capital, and it will take nearly two days to travel from here to Qilin Harbor. I've got people keeping an eye on the Royal Guard's barracks and gates, and we'll be the first to hear if he does send the Royal Guard to pursue us. All the wagons had been reinforced enough for a two-day long ride. Then let Kenmax and Philim, and Reddy escort our family first, and Shaheen and I, as well as Tiger Ross, with our family forces to stay behind to stop us.

Although the Royal Guards are ten times more numerous than us, I believe that they can be held back for a day or two. We don't need to defeat the Royal Guard, we just need to slow down their journey so they can't catch up with our family. As soon as our family arrives at the port of Qilin and boards the ship, it will be safe. As for the garrison corps of Qilin Harbor, they are under the orders of our family, so they will not take care of His Majesty's will. ”

Duke Kenmeth breathed a sigh of relief: "I know that what kind of bazaar your Norton family has opened in its forest harbor will not let Your Majesty do anything, and the garrison is our own people, so the road ahead is unimpeded." Just do as you say, Locke, the pursuit of a single Royal Guard Legion can't help us, as long as we return to the family territory, we will simply set up our own kingdom, with Locke as the king, separate from the Kingdom of Antinac, and slowly settle accounts with him in the future......"

Duke Kenmez's idea is that if His Royal Highness declares the four families to be rebellious, then the four dukes will simply establish their own country when they return to the family territory, elect Lorist as the king, take the Antinac Kingdom as the enemy, and launch a strategy against the Antinac Kingdom, I believe that in less than two years, the family armed forces of the four families can sweep through most of the territory of the Antinac Kingdom, get the response and support of the nobles of those kingdoms, and trap the Zhongxing Emperor who thought he thought he was reviving the Cresson Empire in the imperial capital to do his dream of reviving the empire.

Lorist shook his head a little confused: "I don't think it's that time, if we take the initiative to set up our own kingdom, it will make people feel that Your Majesty declares us a veritable crime of rebellion, I think that if we return to the family territory, we should not take the initiative to provoke except to strengthen our defenses, only wait for Your Majesty to raise the kingdom troops to attack us, and wait for us to win before announcing our separation from the kingdom, then it is better......

Duke Philip sighed: "Locke, it's not me talking about you, your character is still too soft, don't care too much about your Norton family's reputation for loyalty and righteousness, now Your Majesty is forcing us to rebel and slander us as rebels." At this moment, we should take the initiative and not need to consider Your Majesty's safety on the battlefield if we are self-reliant. Otherwise, if he has a bad situation on the battlefield, we will have to bear the stigma of being a king-killer......"

A horse came in the distance, and finally stopped everyone's chaotic discussion.

"Your Highness, His Majesty the King is here. "Riding is one of the guards that Lorist has placed at the city gates.

"Is the Royal Guard also in action?" asked Lorlist, anxiously.

"No, the Royal Guards did not move, and His Majesty the King chased after him with a dozen men. The guard replied.

Lorist and the others glanced at each other, what the hell is Second Highness doing?

"Perhaps His Majesty has come to delay our journey, so that the Royal Guards will have plenty of time to pursue...... Duke Kenmax guessed.

"Hehe," Lorist sneered, "let our family and troops move on, and we'll wait here to see what our King Majesty has to say." ”

Soon, His Royal Highness arrived with a dozen or so guards, Pegasus.

"Brother Locke, how can you turn around and leave without saying a word? It's all my fault, I just investigated clearly, I can't blame you for what happened today, it's my bastard who deceived people too much, offended the dignity of the Norton family, you killed right. I shouldn't have blamed you for losing my temper by going on a killing spree on Royal Avenue to give me face. It's my fault, I hope you can forgive me. After all, it was only two days before the enthronement ceremony, and I was very anxious and worried that something would go wrong. That's why I lost my temper when I was stimulated......"

The Second Highness approached, grabbed the reins of Lorlist's mount and sincerely apologized with a sincere smile, justifying the thunderous fury that had erupted more than two hours earlier. repeatedly begged Lorist and the other four dukes to return to the imperial capital, and not to say goodbye and leave.

Lorist and the others repeatedly refused, but the Second Highness just grabbed the reins of Lorlist's mount and held on, until half an hour later, the Grand Duke of Fisabrun arrived with a group of royal nobles, and at the same time retained and persuaded Lorist and others.

It wasn't until nightfall that several guards who were monitoring the residence of the Royal Guards arrived and quietly reported to Lorist that His Royal Highness had not dispatched the Royal Guards to pursue, that Lorist changed his mind, and after discussing with Duke Kenmax and others, he finally agreed to the request of His Royal Highness and Grand Duke Fisabrun and other nobles of the kingdom to stay, and agreed to return to the imperial capital.

However, Lorist also rejected the request of the Second Highness that the families and family forces of the four dukes also return to the imperial capital together, on the pretext that he and the others were already frightened and did not want to stay in the imperial capital anymore, and they would go to the island of Hiloas for a summer vacation to comfort the frightened feelings. If they insist that they also want to turn back, then Lorist and the others will also refuse to go to the imperial capital.

His Royal Highness reluctantly agreed to this request, and let the four of Lorist only bring less than 100 guards back to the imperial capital to participate in the enthronement ceremony two days later. At this moment, whether it is the Second Highness or Lorlist, as well as the Archduke of Fisabrun, Duke Kenmeth and other nobles of the kingdom who are watching, everyone understands in their hearts that there is already a deep estrangement and rift between the Second Highness and Lorlist, and in the days to come, the two will no longer be able to cooperate as closely as they do with the business alliance, even if the Crisson Empire is restored, the future imperial strife will also arise between the Norton family and the royal family......

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